The present invention relates to a retractable blade safety device, in particular a scalpel, for surgical uses.
Due to the dangers posed to medical personnel who treat individuals with certain transmittable diseases, such as the AIDS virus, it is necessary that doctors and other medical personnel wear surgical gloves in the course of performing the respective professional activities. Surgeons are in particularly high risk positions due to the unavoidable exposure to patient blood.
Prior art retractable blade safety devices help to alleviate some of the risk to medical personnel in handling surgical knifes. Prior art actuators for retractable blade safety devices include sliding actuator buttons (U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,576), sliding thumb pieces (U.S. Pat. No. 4,233,734), pencil or ballpoint pen-type actuators (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,337,576 and 4,663,846), rotating barrels (U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,613), moving shells or shrouds (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,393,587 and 4,414,974), and mechanisms which convert a radial force into an axial force (U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,612).
However, such prior art devices present an additional difficulty to surgeons in that they are difficult to manipulate while wearing surgical gloves. Moreover, prior art actuators, particularly slidable thumb switches and pen type actuators, pose the further risk that they may cause puncturing or tearing of surgical gloves during use.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a retractable blade scalpel, or other like cutting device, which utilizes as an actuator a flexible envelope which when compressed, causes a knife blade to protrude from within a safe housing.
A companion object of the present invention is the provision of a retractable blade scalpel which can be readily manipulated by surgeons without the risk of damaging surgical gloves and other like protective clothing.